The $1.3 trillion spending bill passed this week by a Congress with Republican majorities in both houses and signed into law by a Republican president proved that it is the Democrats who are actually in control.
I was a Republican activist for nearly 30 years before finally recognizing last year that the party no longer represented my conservative values and principles and had left me.
After promising for a decade to repeal Obamacare, the Republicans refused to do so when they controlled every lever of government. After promising to defund Planned Parenthood and build a border wall and end massive budget deficits, they refused to do any of those things once they had the chance.
In fact, last year the Republican Congress passed exactly one – and only one – bill that was specifically conservative and opposed by the Democrats: They passed a tax reduction bill. But even there, they made no effort whatsoever to simplify the tax code as they had promised to do for decades.
But even if the Republicans would refuse to follow through on pursuing a conservative agenda, at least if they were in control of Congress, the Democrats would not be able to advance their leftist agenda, right?
Wrong.
Today President Trump signed into law a massive spending bill that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi immediately celebrated as victories for the Democrat Party. Schumer crowed in a press conference that the bill “brings the era of austerity to an unceremonious end.” In other words, the Republicans had now fully and finally capitulated to the Democrats’ absolute opposition to any fiscal restraint.
Meanwhile, Pelosi bragged that the bill is “one yard high” and full of earmarks. She explained that the Republican leadership had rushed the bill through the House so that the Republican members of Congress would not have time to discover that it was a “victory” for the Democrats and their priorities.
Pelosi was 100% correct.
The Republican leadership waited until the day before the deadline to avoid a government shut-down so that failure to pass the bill would have catastrophic consequences. Then they foisted on their members a bill that was 2,232 pages long and gave them 16 hours to read it before voting on it. In doing so, they violated yet another promise – that they would always provide at least three days to review a bill before bringing it up for a vote.
And in this manner the Republicans passed the second largest spending bill in the history of the human race. And in that bill they once again broke their promise to defund Planned Parenthood, giving them over $500 million to continue to slaughter babies and then sell their body parts and to continue using taxpayer funds to campaign against Republicans and pro-life organizations.
You can’t make this stuff up.
President Trump immediately expressed his disdain for the bill, but not because of the gargantuan amount of spending in it but rather because, in his view, it didn’t spend enough money.
Nevertheless, he told us he did get funding to start construction of the border wall. But his claim, like so many of the claims he makes, was verifiably false: The bill specifically prohibits using any funds to start construction of a border wall and limits use of funds to repair and build previously approved fencing.
So, a Congress with Republican majorities in both houses sent to a Republican president a mammoth spending bill that imposes on our kids yet another trillion dollars of debt in order to give the Democrats virtually everything they wanted and almost nothing the Republicans said they wanted, and the Republican president signed it into law.
And none of them stopped for even a second to consider the grotesque immorality of continuing to steal trillions of dollars from our kids so we can live large today. I mean, it’s not like today’s Congress and president are answerable to the people who will have to pay off this horrendous debt in the future.
Ain’t unaccountability grand?
So, sure, the Republicans have the majorities in the House and Senate, and yes, the Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader are Republicans, but it is the Democrats under Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi who are in control. This November’s election will merely formalize the deal.
Author: Ken Falkenstein
Ken Falkenstein is the Managing Editor of Committed Conservative and brings a wealth of experience and expertise in public affairs to the job. Ken served in the U.S. Army in the last years of the Cold War as a Russian linguist for military intelligence and the NSA. After leaving the Army, he earned his degree in Secondary Education from Old Dominion University, where he also wrote a popular column in the student newspaper.
Upon graduation, Ken worked as a Legislative Aide to two Republican members of the Virginia House of Delegates. Ken also served as Corresponding Secretary of the Young Republican Federation of Virginia, managed several successful political campaigns, and managed governmental affairs operations for a local Realtor association.
In 1995, Ken moved to Washington, DC to serve as a Legislative Assistant to Sen. John Warner (R-VA). While working for Sen. Warner, Ken attended law school at night, earning his J.D. with honors from the George Mason University School of Law (n/k/a The Antonin Scalia Law School). Since that time, Ken has practiced as a civil litigation attorney, including serving for three years as an Associate City Attorney for the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Ken previously was a contributor to the highly-regarded political blog Bearing Drift and was a weekly co-host of The Steve Batton Radio Program. In 2016, Ken ran unsuccessfully for the Virginia Beach School Board. Ken is also a former President of the Down Syndrome Association of Hampton Roads.
Ken now lives outside of Denver, Colorado with his wife, Kim, and three sons, Adam, Dylan, and Joshua, who has Down syndrome. Ken’s writing is motivated and informed primarily by his concern for his kids’ future.
